Arsenal’s captain, the long term injured Per Mertesacker, has admitted that he is planning to consider offers from other clubs during the January transfer window.

Currently out of action until the new year with a knee injury sustained during the Gunners’ preseason, the 32-year-old has had to watch from the sidelines as fellow German and summer signing Shkodran Mustafi arrived from Valencia and made the centre-back position his own.

Faced with increased competition for his starting place and with his contract set to expire at the end of the season, Mertesacker is, according to the Daily Star, considering a move away from the Emirates and possibly back to Germany,

“My contract with Arsenal expires next year, and I would like it to change something.”

“Of course, I wonder what would make sense for me, if it should not go on with Arsenal. Where can I be helpful then? What do I want? Could you possibly go back to Germany again?”

“I imagine, what prospects can open up for me and the family, also in Germany. And I think that from January these thoughts are very intensified.”